There exists in the art a medicine packaging device including a distributed medicine supplying device, wherein a medicine that cannot be supplied in an automated manner (e.g., tablets) is manually prepared as separate packages and is then supplied to a packaging device. Such a distributed medicine supplying device is constructed to accommodate distributed medicines in a tray, which are compartmentalized in a latticed form, and supply the distributed medicines.
In the above-described conventional distributed medicine supplying device, medicines for one prescription are distributed through one tray, while medicines for the next prescription are distributed again after supplying the distributed medicines from said tray (see, e.g., Patent Documents 1 to 4)
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. (Hei)6-37202
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent No. 2866543
Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-203433
Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-151399